WHO’S AFRAID OF ANNA KNIGHT?
Somewhere at the back of her mind Anna had known that things would take a turn for the worse but this particular situation was an unexpected surprise. Her eyes narrowed as she stared down the drunken moonshiners who stood in front of her. They were not the type of men you wanted to mess with, especially not in these parts. Anna was tempted to take a step back as she took in their oily hair, unshaven faces, and mocking smiles but she stood her ground with determination.
“I will tell you again” one of them drawled in his rich Mississippi twang “if’n you don’t stop teaching this here classes you’re gonna have some trouble on your hands”
Anna felt her temper flare. She would not be intimidated by them. “I already told you” she ground out through clenched teeth “I don’t understand how my classes have anything to do with you”
“And we already told you” another one of them shot back angrily “your classes are affecting our business”
Anna sighed. She had only recently come back home to Mississippi from Battle Creek, Michigan, where she’d been studying. She had enrolled in the nursing course at Battle Creek college and the education had opened her eyes in ways that she hadn’t imagined. When she finished her final class she was determined to return to her rural Mississippi roots to make a difference in her local community.
Dr. John Kellogg has been enormously helpful. He had paid for the supplies that she needed to start up a small community health education center. As soon as she arrived home in Mississippi she enlisted the help of her Uncle Abner and restored a run-down cabin in Soso, not far from where she lived in Gitano.
The log cabin soon became a bustling center of influence reaching out to those who lived in and around Soso. As a nurse Anna doubled as a health practitioner and health educator, treating minor ailments and injuries as well as providing preventative health education. On the weekends she ran Bible classes which she advertised to those who attended her health and lifestyle classes during the week.
The community health clinic in Soso was soon a roaring success and began to make a positive impact in the community. Her lectures on the damage caused to the liver by drinking alcohol made a deep impression and soon began making inroads into the community. People stopped drinking and the local moonshine business began to suffer.
The illegally distilled alcohol was big business around those parts and soon the local moonshiners began to notice a sharp drop in their sales. They got wind that an African American nurse was running health programs and warning people to stay away from Alcohol and they decided to act.
They paid Anna a friendly visit at the end of one of her work days and warned her to stop eating into their business.
Standing in front of them now, Anna raised her chin defiantly. “I’m not going to stop teaching the truth,” she said testily.
The moonshiner’s jaw clamped down angrily and he moved his hand to hover over the pistol holstered at his side.
“If you don’t stop” he drawled in a low menacing voice “then we’s a gonna have to take the law into our own hands and stop you”
“Yeah” his friend behind him guffawed “A few well-placed bullets oughta shut you up”
Anna’s eyes flashed dangerously “I’ll have you know that I carry a pistol and a double barrel shotgun” she shot back “and when you’re ready to shoot just know that I will be too”
For a long tenuous moment, the moonshiners and the missionary stared each other down. The tension in the air crackled palpably.
Finally, the moonshiner dropped his hand away from his holster with a wolfish grin. He took a step towards Anna “Well then” he said softly “I ain’t one to shy away from a challenge. We’ll see how long you keep this up, Miss Knight…the road from Soso to Gitano can be mighty dangerous this time of day” with that he tipped his hat to her, turned around and strode out of the little cabin with his friends in tow.
